The newly founded Art x Science School for Transformation, a cooperation between the JKU and the University of Applied Arts Vienna, hosted the opening event LET'S TRANSFORM! last week. The school made a strong statement by focusing on creativity as a transformative force and key driver for artistic and scientific discoveries in tackling current challenges.

The director of the Art x Science School for Transformation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Monika Halkort, and the co-director of the school at the JKU, Georg Hubmann, presented their joint version: to create a space in which current transformation processes can be addressed and art and science, innovative and unconventional approaches, transdisciplinary research and forward-looking teaching can be interwoven. Invited guests from the fields of art, science and higher education enriched the evening and provided an overview of the transdisciplinary approaches of the Art x Science School for Transformation.

In her keynote speech, bestselling author Ulrike Herrmann provided an opportunity to reflect on topics such as the effects of capitalism, greenwashing and the lessons of history. In her presentation, she impressively described the incompatibility of capitalism with the simultaneous management of climate change, formulated a reduction of all resources as a possible alternative and, above all, pointed out the urgent need for action.

In a subsequent discussion, moderated by Georg Hubmann, with university expert Channa Van der Brug, cultural manager Alexandra Graupner (head of the Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab) and Ulrike Herrmann, the focus was on how art, teaching and science can build bridges at universities in order to address current challenges.

The evening also featured excerpts from the LIT Ars Electronica project touching thoughts / kicking cancer, opens an external URL in a new window - a collaboration between scientists from the JKU Faculty of Medicine and international artists from the community of servus.at – Kunst und Kultur in Netz, opens an external URL in a new window. The event was visually captured by the artistic work of graphic recorder Viktoria Strehn.